COLUMBIA LODGE, NORWICH

In the History of The Massachusetts Grand Lodge, we find that on the 24th of June, 1785, a petition was received from several brethren, praying for the establishment of a Lodge at Norwich, Connecticut, and that a charter was granted, under the title of "Columbia Lodge." How long this Lodge was continued, is not known; but it must have ceased its opera­tions before the Grand Lodge of Connecticut was formed, for we find no allusion made to such a Lodge, in the transactions of that body, until May, 1802, when "a petition was presented from some of the fraternity in Norwich, praying to be recog­nized as a regular Lodge, and to be received under the juris­diction of this Grand Lodge, in consequence of a charter ob­tained from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, in the year 1785, by the name of Columbia." Serious objections were urged against this petition, in consequence of said Columbia Lodge having for many years lain dormant, and another Lodge being now in active operation in Norwich, under a charter from the Grand Lodge of Connecticut. The petition was withdrawn, before action was had upon it, and most of the brethren who had been members of said Columbia Lodge, united harmoni­ously with “Somerset Lodge, No. 34."

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